"I think the war on drugs has been a failure, and I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws." - Barack Obama

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Sunday, January 18, 2009

Obama Citizens Briefing Book

Though Obama was able to dodge the question in his second round of Open for Questions, he may not be so lucky with the Citizens Briefing Book, which is more or less the same process under a different name - people like you and me voted on issues that they think Obama should be focusing on.

But look at the wording of the top question, which received 92970 'points' (1 vote = 10 points)

Ending Marijuana Prohibition

I suggest that we step back and take a non-biased "Science Based" approach to decide what should be done about the "Utter Failure" that we call the War on (some) Drugs.The fact is that Marijuana is much less harmful to our bodies than other Legal Drugs such as Tobacco and Alcohol. And for the Government to recognize Marijuana as having Medicinal Properties AND as a Schedule I drug (Has NO medicinal Properties) is an obvious flaw in the system.We must stop imprisoning responsible adult citizens choosing to use a drug that has been mis-labeled for over 70 years.

Ooh, this might be a trickier one to dodge. This isn't asked as a question in the form of 'will you' (a question easily answered with one two-letter word). Not only that - it hits the nail quite squarely on the head, listing a few of the most salient points necessary, and invoking the magic word: 'science'.

Like him or not, Obama is a politician, and politicians are nothing if not masters at dodging questions. I wouldn't be surprised if Obama found a way to avoid opening Pandora's box with this one as well (and I wouldn't blame him for being afraid to do so). Still, we're not making it any easier for him this time around, because Obama either has to ignore all scientific evidence (as John Walters is clearly not above of doing) or try and provide solid, logical reasons why we should... uphold illogical drug laws.

Don't be shocked to find a less-than-satisfactory response to this question. In all reality, the purpose of this system (and the 'Open For Questions' exchanges as well) is not to extract meaningful, groundbreaking responses from the president-elect (in other words, if he hasn't spoken up about an issue in front of the media yet, why should this be any different?) The real purpose is twofold:

1. See what people actually care about

2. Show people that Obama cares about #1.

And, given the results of all three surveys (for lack of a better word), I'd say that we've succeeded in our part. Like it or not, Obama is going to have to make some changes in the current system of dealing with drugs. Maybe not immediately, but eventually. That, or come up with some very compelling reasons not to - and between you and me, I'd say that the clock is ticking for pro-Prohibitionists to come forward with some actual scientific evidence to back their policies. I think seven decades is long enough, don't you?